Mafia II is the latest blockbuster from 2K Games which has incorporated a number of features which bring a more interactive experience to gamers. In this article, we see if these "Graphics Plus" technologies are able to deliver on their promises or fall flat like we have seen so many times before....

boy to I have a serious beef to pick with this game so far.. more so with the idiots at 2K! Yarg, details to follow

THis I would love to hear since the experience has been butter smooth for me through and through. Driving is a PITA, replay value is next to nil and some of the early levels plod along but other than that, I like it. The demo on the other hand was riddled with issues.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Windego

Nice article, would like to see some 480SLI comparsion numbers to 460 in 3D Vision Surround to see the performance difference and if it's actually playable maxed out all the bells and whistles.

I played the Demo last night on my 360. Since I've gone to mostly PC gaming I'm a lot more happier with my gaming experience, in general. Even after reading this article I'm not impressed with Physx, it looked good in BatmanAA but my biggest grip is that it doesn't add anything to game play. Sure you can see papers flowing realistically, or debris flying off and not evaporating, but is it worth the initial investment? I say no, at least not yet.

I played the Demo last night on my 360. Since I've gone to mostly PC gaming I'm a lot more happier with my gaming experience, in general. Even after reading this article I'm not impressed with Physx, it looked good in BatmanAA but my biggest grip is that it doesn't add anything to game play. Sure you can see papers flowing realistically, or debris flying off and not evaporating, but is it worth the initial investment? I say no, at least not yet.

Granted, but then again you could ask yourself: what's considered an "initial investment"? At this point PhysX is compatible with every $80+ NVIDIA card currently on the market so if you have one, the investment has already been made anyways. This game in particular FINALLY allows for PhysX processing on a multi core CPU without making a mockery of the framerates as well.

Personally, I think it will be a while before physics (OpenCL, PhysX, etc) will have a meaningful impact upon gameplay.

What I love about this game is the fact that it provides gamers with a number of options to improve their overall EXPERIENCE. This is a very important point since the PC needs distinguishing features to set it apart from consoles IMO.

Granted, but then again you could ask yourself: what's considered an "initial investment"? At this point PhysX is compatible with every $80+ NVIDIA card currently on the market so if you have one, the investment has already been made anyways. This game in particular FINALLY allows for PhysX processing on a multi core CPU without making a mockery of the framerates as well.

Personally, I think it will be a while before physics (OpenCL, PhysX, etc) will have a meaningful impact upon gameplay.

What I love about this game is the fact that it provides gamers with a number of options to improve their overall EXPERIENCE. This is a very important point since the PC needs distinguishing features to set it apart from consoles IMO.

LOL PC is already getting a lot of distinction. With a 200$ graphics cards you can play most of the PC console port at 1920x1080 with MSAA while Console are getting games in the post 1280x720 and many use a lower resolution (mainly on the Xbox 360) to keep their 30fps..